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Our study of cable news coverage looked at all Iraq stories aired
during a ten-week period, from May 15 through July 21, a period that
included both "bad news" developments for the U.S. mission in Iraq
(notably heavy coverage of accusations of military misconduct
surrounding the November 2005 killing of a number of Iraqi civilians in
Haditha) and "good news" as well, such as the June 8 announcement of
the successful airstrike that killed the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq,
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

For each network, our analysts examined both the 10am and 2pm EDT
hours of live weekday news coverage, or 100 hours of news coverage for
each network. It is during these daytime hours that all three cable
networks offer similar programming that most closely resembles a
traditional newscast, heavy on ostensibly neutral field reports with
little overt commentary from the anchors. FNC’s Fox News Live aired at both 10am and 2pm, as did MSNBC Live. CNN’s morning news program was called CNN Live Today, while their afternoon show was called Live From.... (Since the end of our study period, both shows have been replaced by a live news program called CNN Newsroom.)

Our analysts found a total of 721 items on Iraq, including field
reports, interviews, breaking news events and brief items read by the
news anchors. All three networks aired approximately the same number of
stories: CNN showed 246 Iraq stories totaling 10 hours, 42 minutes of
coverage, followed closely by FNC (244 stories; 10 hours, 32 minutes)
and MSNBC (231 stories; 9 hours, 19 minutes).

Interestingly, all three networks ran significantly more Iraq war
news during their 10am hour (a total of 19 hours, 37 minutes) than
during the 2pm hours (10 hours, 55 minutes), when all three cable
networks featured heavier coverage of domestic news.

The amount of coverage given to the Iraq war depended on the ebb and
flow of events in Iraq itself as well as the need to cover any major
developments in the rest of the world. Media attention on the conflict
increased in late May as the networks focused on a Time magazine
report accusing a group of U.S. Marines of killing Iraqi civilians in
Haditha; the May 29 wounding of CBS News reporter Kimberly Dozier and
the death of her crew also garnered heavy coverage. Coverage of the war
peaked in early June, following the successful strike against
terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and President Bush’s surprise June
13 trip to Baghdad to meet with the newly-established elected
government. In mid-June, the kidnapping and killing of two U.S.
soldiers also drew relatively heavy coverage.

As other world events competed for attention, however, cable news
producers pushed the Iraq war to the sidelines. From late June through
the end of the study period, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict drew
heavy cable news coverage, particularly after the Iranian-backed
terrorist group Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers on July 12.
The first week of July also saw heavy cable news attention to another
threat to peace, North Korea’s testing of several missiles in defiance
of the international community.

All three networks emphasized insurgent attacks against U.S.
soldiers and Iraqi civilians, a topic that accounted for fully 35
percent of all Iraq stories. CNN gave slightly more coverage to these
attacks (96 stories, or 39% of coverage) than either MSNBC (86 stories,
37%) or FNC (79 stories, 32%), but the differences do not appear
especially significant.

Apart from the drumbeat of daily attacks, the news agendas of the
three cable networks diverged. CNN and MSNBC devoted more resources to
covering stories that reflected poorly on the U.S. mission in Iraq,
while FNC aired more stories about U.S. achievements in Iraq than either
of its rivals.

CNN and MSNBC, for example, focused extensively on allegations of
misconduct by U.S. forces in Iraq — principally a November 2005
incident in Haditha in which a group of U.S. Marines are alleged to
have attacked and killed perhaps 24 unarmed civilians after a roadside
explosive killed a Marine in their unit. The story received renewed
focus in May after anti-war Congressman John Murtha held a news
conference in which he alleged the Marines "killed innocent civilians
in cold blood." At the time, the incident was still being investigated
by the military; as of early December, no charges had actually been
filed against any of the Marines involved.

FNC made sure viewers knew about the allegations, broadcasting a
total of 12 stories on Haditha and other allegations of U.S. military
misconduct. But MSNBC and CNN pursued those same stories much more
aggressively. MSNBC aired a total of 36 stories on alleged U.S.
misconduct, three times as much coverage as the Fox News Channel, while
CNN’s coverage was an astounding five times greater (59 stories).

CNN and MSNBC’s coverage took on the characteristics of a feeding
frenzy, with the U.S. troops presumed guilty. CNN anchor Tony Harris
echoed Murtha’s inflammatory charges during a May 30 report: "Men,
women and children, gunned down in cold blood. That’s the
allegation....U.S. Marines are suspected of killing two dozen unarmed
civilians, accusations of a cover-up also a part of the mix. Democratic
Congressman John Murtha has been briefed on what happened....Murtha
calls the alleged atrocity as bad as the Abu Ghraib prison abuse
scandal, if not worse."

Three days later, CNN’s John Vause extended the indictment to all
U.S. troops, not just the few being investigated regarding Haditha:
"There is a perception that U.S. forces are brutal and are, at times,
trigger happy."

Similarly, CNN and MSNBC were more likely than FNC to highlight news
of U.S. military casualties, including both the announcement of new
casualties and such media "milestones" as the 2,500th U.S. combat death
in mid-June. In the 50 weekdays we examined, CNN aired a total of 50
stories on the killing and wounding of U.S. forces — just slightly more
than MSNBC (44 stories) and exactly twice as many as FNC (25 stories).

Few stories about fallen soldiers were framed as tributes to their
bravery or sacrifice; most just noted the deaths of another one, two or
three soldiers without linking their deaths to any greater purpose.
Appearing during MSNBC’s live coverage on June 8, the day Zarqawi’s
death was announced, Hardball host Chris Matthews was especially
bleak. "Americans keep getting killed," he somberly noted, "and more
Americans will be killed next week and the week after and the week
after and the week after. These casualties keep coming and they keep
hurting the people in this country."

CNN and MSNBC were also more likely than FNC to air stories about
the deaths of Iraqi civilians and other non-military combatants,
although the differences were modest. CNN ran 49 such stories, compared
to MSNBC’s 41 and FNC’s 35. As with stories about U.S. military
casualties, FNC could hardly be accused of censoring such material, as
the network aired dozens of reports about the dead and dying in Iraq.
But CNN and MSNBC both made the decision to air even more such reports
than their cable news competitor.

FNC Devoted More Time to Covering U.S. Achievements: While
CNN and MSNBC emphasized the negative news out of Iraq, FNC used its
airtime to highlight a decidedly more positive agenda. FNC aired 81
stories relating news of coalition victories in Iraq, many following
the June 8 announcement of the successful U.S. air strike that killed
al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. When it came to telling
viewers about our military’s successes, MSNBC’s 47 stories made them a
distant second to FNC, with CNN coming in dead last (41 stories).

Hours after Zarqawi’s death was announced, FNC daytime anchor Martha
MacCallum expressed what most Americans probably felt upon hearing the
news: "It is clearly a good day in this fight and in this effort."

Apart from Zarqawi’s demise, FNC featured many other reports of
successful U.S. and Iraqi-led military efforts to kill and capture
other insurgent leaders. Anchor Bob Sellers reported one such success on
July 7: "A key capture in the war on terror. Backed by U.S. aircraft,
Iraqi troops stormed a Shiite stronghold in eastern Baghdad and took
out a militia leader. At least 30 other terrorists were killed in that
raid."

Fox was also more likely than CNN or MSNBC to note the success of
other (non-military) efforts in the campaign to bring peace to Iraq. "A
cash crunch putting a strain on al-Qaeda in Iraq. Former Deputy CIA
Director John McLaughlin telling the Senate Foreign Relations committee
there is evidence that the terror group no longer has control of its
network," FNC anchor Brigitte Quinn noted on June 19. "In a letter
before he was killed, Zarqawi pleaded for cash, writing that many of
his lines of support have been cut off. To cope, terrorists have had to
resort to cash couriers who are being tracked by intelligence agents."
Only FNC viewers were told about McLaughlin’s upbeat testimony, which
was ignored by CNN and MSNBC.

When it came to coverage of Iraq’s political process, FNC again led
the way with 63 stories, a level that nearly doubled MSNBC (38 stories)
and CNN (34 stories). During the period our analysts examined — which
included the final formation of a permanent government headed by Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki and including representatives of all of Iraq’s
major groups — much of the coverage of Iraq’s politics (on all three
networks) was positive in tone. FNC anchor Brigitte Quinn gave voice to
that optimism in a June 8 report about the end of negotiations for the
permanent Iraqi government, calling it "a momentous occasion."

The trends that our analysts discovered during the ten weeks we
examined are clear: CNN and MSNBC gravitated toward major "bad news"
topics such as military and civilian casualties and allegations of U.S.
misconduct, while FNC emphasized "good news" topics such as U.S.
military achievements and the creation of a permanent, representative,
democratically-elected Iraqi government. That is not to say that FNC
never mentioned any of the terrible things that were happening in Iraq
(they did), or that CNN and MSNBC never revealed the accomplishments of
the U.S.-led coalition (they did). But both CNN and MSNBC
systematically chose to emphasize news stories and topics that
reflected poorly on the U.S. mission in Iraq, while FNC made it a point
to also tell viewers about the positive developments in the war.

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